Special Occasions!

I'm going to start with some old updates, but during my White Coat weekend (about a month ago, oops), my parents came up and we took some time to go to the zoo!!  The Memphis Zoo is amazing!  Here are a few snapshots, just to give you an idea of what we saw:

WOLF!

They have pandas!  Oh so cute :)

The entire weekend was great!!  We had a big BBQ dinner Friday night, the zoo on Saturday, and then we came home to watch the wolfpack play.  It was great to see my parents, but it was sad to see them leave.

I also wanted to share this picture....

... To prove that we've been keeping up with wolfpack football!

Finally, it's Halloween in one week, so Tyler and decided to carve a pumpkin together.  We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend to pick out a fun pumpkin!  I had a lot of tests this past week to study for, so we decided to carve it over my birthday weekend!  Here is our final product... GO PACK!!

We are sooooooo proud of our awesome pumpkin!

Finally, some pictures from my birthday celebration!  We went to Silky O' Sullivan's on Beale Street.  It's a really fun dueling piano bar/ Irish pub!  My friend Joey was celebrating his 26th and I was celebrating my 23rd!

Dueling pianos!!!  These guys were hilarious!  

They called me and Joey to the stage to sing Happy Birthday to us!

Those are all the updates I have for now!  If you're reading this, keep in touch!  I miss everyone so much!

Birthday in another City

So tomorrow is my birthday, and it's really not feeling like it.  With another wave of tests finally completed, I feel so drained.  A part of me is thinking that sleep would be a wonderful present.  However, tomorrow morning is the Vision Walk.  I am really excited about it, and a ton of SCO students go to raise awareness and walk to join the fight against blindness.  It just always seems that there's something to do on your special day.  Last year at this time I was interviewing to be accepted to Southern and now I'm here.  I cannot believe it's been a whole year! 

Tests have been going rather well.  Not the same great grades from undergrad, but the material is way harder and there's no give from professors (aka a curve).  I'm definitely enjoying what I'm learning, but there is a lot of material to keep with.  I'm starting to forget what a "break" really is!

A lot of classmates are going home this weekend, whether it's for their undergrad's homecoming or just to visit friends and family.  It was a great weekend for it since our next test isn't until Thursday.  I kind of wish I had made the effort to go home now, but I still don't think we would be able to afford it or really have as much time as I would like to visit everyone. 

Tomorrow night I'm going with some friends to a dueling piano bar downtown.  It should be fun. :)  One of my friend's fiance, who is here with her, has his birthday on Sunday the 24th.  His dad is coming in to celebrate with him, so we will all be downtown!  

I'm so ready to go back home sometime though.  Although that's practically months away, I cannot wait for it!!  I miss North Carolina so much- especially people's ability to drive better.  Every now and again I will get really home sick.  I like being in TN because this is where SCO is, but I hate the fact that it's 12 hours away from home...

I will let you know how my birthday celebrations go :)  I MISS EVERYONE SO MUCH!

Learning so much and wishing it could stick better!

I just need to keep practicing!  I need to keep drilling and studying!!!

I have learned so much already and I find myself randomly thinking, "what was that pathway again?"  "What are all the branches of the trigeminal nerve and what all do they innervate?" "How am I supposed to perform this chair skill?"  "Should an esophore have base in or base out prisms to correct their phoria?"  And the list goes on!

I found out in my Theory and Methods lab that I have some exophoria (a tendency for my eyes to turn out).  Don't worry- You'll never see me wall-eyed, because I have enough positive fusional vergence to overcome this tendency, but it makes sense since I am a myope (blurred distance vision).   I've never been told this before, but it's never been an issue, so it's okay.  :)

I am studying for my Theory and Methods test that's tomorrow, and there is so much information!  We've learned about AC/A ratios (the convergence response to the convergence stimulus), how to take proper visual acuities, how big letters on the Snellen chart need to be to have 20/20, 20/30, 20/40, etc. letters, why pinhole accuities are taken, how to test the cranial nerves through extraocular motilities, and the list goes on!

I've been doing very well in the class thus far.  I made a 98 on my retinoscopy practical (the two points were because I forgot to write DS after two of my spherical measurements- so I still got all the powers right).  My first test was okay, but I'm hoping to do better on the next one.

I just got another work study position that's much better than my other one!  As a class we are split up into 5 lab groups.  Each group has a different lab at different times every day.   Each group has a day off; my group's is Thursday.  However, one of the groups that has theory and methods lab on Thursday had an odd number of people in the lab.  Now I get to have an extra day of Theory and Methods lab to make that lab group have an even number of people... aka I get paid to have extra practice!  YEAH!  God is so good :)

Optics is one of my favorites classes!  At first I didn't like it because we're doing 'team-based learning' but now I really enjoy it!  It's like constant group studying to really test my knowledge everyday and work out kinks that I don't understand!  Plus, optics is one of the main reasons I got interested in optometry!!  I made a 100 on my first test in that class and my group grade is like a 97 right now :)  I've really enjoyed learning about astigmatism, and now I know that I am an against-the-rule compound myopic astigmat in both eyes!  Because of my -0.75 DC astigmatism, I get to participate in a study that Dr. Jackson is doing!   I love participating in studies at school.  We always get some kind of compensation, so it's great for struggling students :)

Life at home is going well.  Tyler and I don't get to see each other that much, but we try to spend as much time together as we can (even if I'm sitting on the couch next to him studying while he watches TV).

Next week I have an Anatomy test on Monday, and an Optics test on Wednesday and my BIRTHDAY Saturday!!!

November will be a rough month, so I will try to get in a couple more blogs in before then!

My Future in Funny Videos!

I don't know who in my class found this first one, but it is a hilarious depiction of what I will deal with when I'm finally in clinic at SCO- and for the rest of my life.

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7098419/?ref=nf


The next video I have watch to help me study for my Neuroanatomy test.  It is a hilarious remake of Bush's song "Glycerine."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH1BwBRo44g


Please do enjoy fellow optometrists/medical doctors' creativity!

Now off to more studying... sorry for the short post, but this neuroanatomy is tomorrow!  I will give a more detailed update soon! :)